For George Best, these were words to live by.

Best, one of soccer's all-time greatest players, died Friday at the age of 59.

The former Manchester United star had been in critical condition in the intensive care unit of a London hospital for a week.

Best, who needed a liver transplant three years ago after decades of alcohol abuse, saw his condition worsen Thursday, with internal bleeding affecting his lungs and other organs. Best was also unconscious and unable to breathe without a ventilator since being put on life support this past weekend.

His generation's David Beckham, Best is widely considered the greatest British-born soccer player in the history of the game.

Dubbed "the fifth Beatle" for his long hair and good looks, Best was the James Dean of soccer – a rebel who refused to conform to the restrictive whims of coaches and played the game by his own rules.

Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Best made his debut for Manchester United in 1963 at the age of 17 and immediately became a fan favourite. Crowds poured into United's Old Trafford stadium week after week to watch the mercurial forward bewitch and beguile opposing players with his vision, speed and wizardry with the ball at his feet.

Best didn't just leave defenders for dead – he hit them over the head with the shovel, dug up the plot, tossed them in and covered them up with the fresh earth, such was the extent of his mesmerizing genius.

"On a football field, he could do anything and everything, the very personification of Total Football before it was invented," wrote Brian Glanville, the dean of English soccer journalists, in Friday's edition of the London Times.

"For, no more than five-foot-eight-inches tall, he could out-jump far bigger opponents to head spectacular goals. His ball control was consummate, his acceleration devastating, he could flip a coin over his shoulder and catch it in the top pocket of his jacket. Kicked, tripped and constantly fouled by tormented defenders, he rarely retaliated and was never intimidated."

Two years after making his debut, he led United to its first league title in eight seasons in 1965 and followed it up with another in 1967.

Best and United had conquered England. Their next mission was to conquer Europe.

In the 1968 final of the European Cup – the forerunner to today's Champions League – Best scored the winning goal in overtime against Portuguese powerhouse Benfica at London's Wembley Stadium as United became the first English side to win the prestigious trophy.

Best achieved worldwide stardom as he was recognized for his outstanding play that year when he was voted European and English player of the year.

His prodigious talent and showmanship instantly made him a cultural icon in Great Britain, and realizing he now had the world at his feet, the once shy kid from Belfast took the immortal words of William Blake to heart.

Best led the life of an extravagant Hollywood celebrity, renowned for his gambling habits, constant womanizing and heavy drinking.

There is a very famous story of how a bellboy entered his hotel room early one morning only to find the Manchester United star lying in bed drunk with the current Miss World at his side, a dozen bottles of champagne on the floor and several thousand pounds of cash won from a night's gambling on the nightstand.

"Tell me, Mr. Best, where did it all go wrong?" the bellboy asked him, echoing the sentiments of an entire nation who felt he was frittering away his precious talent.

"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds (women) and fast cars. The rest I just squandered," he often quipped in defending his playboy ways.

His lifestyle caught up to him in 1974 when, at the height of his career, Manchester United released him. He shockingly retired two years earlier only to rejoin the team, but the club had grown tired of his drinking and what they perceived as his lack of commitment on the field and in training sessions.

Unwilling to be shackled by authority, the-then 27-year-old Best announced he was walking away from the game at his peak. Soccer's original rebel appeared to have walked off into the sunset without so much as a goodbye.

He eventually came out of retirement again but he was never the same player, bouncing between several lower-division clubs and teams in the defunct North American Soccer League.

After returning for one last season with A.F.C. Bournemouth in England's second division, Best retired for good in 1983 at the age of 37.

Sadly, his marvellous playing career did not end with him soaking up the adulation of the Old Trafford faithful or scoring a brilliant goal on the perfectly manicured field at Wembley Stadium in an FA Cup final.

After receiving a three-month jail sentence for drunk driving and assaulting a police officer, Best spent Christmas of 1984 behind bars at Ford Open Prison where he turned out for the prison soccer team with his fellow inmates.

It was a shameful end to the career of a magical player who so often during his prime was known, pardon the cliché, as simply the best.